Supreme Court gives green light to FG to extradite former NSPM chief Okoyomon to UK over currency printing corruption scandal – THISAGE

By Victor Osula Abuja

The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Federal Government of Nigeria the green light to extradite the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPM), Emmanuel Okoyomon, to the United Kingdom to face corruption-related charges.

In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the Court of Appeal dismissed Okoyomon’s appeal seeking to overturn the June 6, 2016 ruling of the Abuja Court of Appeal, which upheld an earlier order approving his extradition.

The commission, led by Justice Mohammed Garba, found that the appeal, marked SC/456/2016, lacked merit and did not present sufficient grounds for the court to interfere with the concurrent findings of the lower courts.

In the preparatory judgment prepared by Justice Emmanuel Agim and read by Justice Mohammed Idris, the supreme court found that the former NSPM boss had failed to establish any case justifying an annulment of the decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The case arises from a request by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), seeking Okoyomon’s extradition to the United Kingdom, where he is wanted over allegations of involvement in a corruption scandal involving officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company and Australia-based Securency International Pty.

On 4 May 2015, the Federal High Court in Abuja granted the AGF’s extradition request.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, Okoyomon appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal, arguing among other things that his constitutional right to a fair trial had been violated.

However, the Court of Appeal, in a ruling delivered by Justice Moore Adumein on June 6, 2016, rejected most of the arguments raised by the former NSPM head.

Justice Adumein said Nigeria has an obligation under the London Scheme for Extradition within the Commonwealth to surrender persons wanted for extraditable offenses from other Commonwealth countries.

“The lower court was right to have acted in this way, so as to avoid a situation in which Nigeria could be in breach of its obligations to another Commonwealth country, the United Kingdom,” the appeal court found.

The court further found that the provisions of the London Extradition Plan had been substantially incorporated into Nigerian law through Sections 1 and 2 of the Extradition Act.

According to the court of appeal, the AGF successfully established reasons for granting the extradition request, while Okoyomon failed to convince the court why the request should be refused.

The court also addressed Okoyomon’s fair trial argument, noting that although an issue regarding his alleged British citizenship had been raised suo motu by the trial judge, the appellant failed to demonstrate how this resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

Justice Adumein found that whether or not Okoyomon was a British citizen had no material effect on the merits of the extradition proceedings.

Following the appeals court ruling, Okoyomon turned to the Supreme Court in a final attempt to overturn the decision.

Friday’s verdict effectively ends the long legal battle and paves the way for the federal government to proceed with extradition to the UK for trial.

The matter is linked to broader investigations into alleged international bribery involving currency printing contracts and remains one of the most high-profile corruption-related cases involving former public officials and multinational entities.

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